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Pas members not enthusiastic about ties with Umno

KUALA LUMPUR – January 14, 2016: The Pas leadership may had declared that the party was willing to cooperate with Umno, at least in non-political matters but a check through comments by members and supporters of the Islamist party in cyberspace suggests they were not even keen on that..

Judging from the comments on Pas’ official Facebook page, the majority of Pas members and supporters were apparently not in favour of Pas “being chummy” with Umno.

“Umno had lied to Pas for too many times already. They (Umno) even promised to table the Hudud bill last year but until today it never happened,” wrote Faiz Sulaiman.

Another Pas supporter pointed out that the party leadership had gone against the stance of the late Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who was the party’s former spiritual leader when they declared that they were willing to cooperate with Umno.

“It would seem that Pas is trying to separate religion and politics. Tok Guru (Nik Aziz) had taught us that in Islam, the two aspects are inseparable…what is happening to Pas?” wrote Hentam Saja.

Some even believed that the cons of establishing a Pas-Umno cooperation, be it political or not, far outweighed the pros.

Muhd Mufiz viewed that such cooperation would cause a massive exodus out of the party among Pas leaders and members who were against any form of tie with Umno.

“A Pas-Umno cooperation will cause a floodgate effect in which Pas state assemblymen, members of parliament and members who disagree to cooperate with Umno to leave the party.

“Has the central leadership ever considered that such a scenario might occur?” he wrote.

Some even went as far as deducing that the party’s central leadership has been “bought” by Umno.

Be that as it may, there were still those who deemed that there was nothing wrong with Pas cooperating with Umno.

Zul Hilmi reprimanded the naysayers that Pas was merely extending their hands to Umno and that the onus is on Umno to decide whether to accept or turn down the offer.

“If Umno really wants to cooperate with Pas then they have to follow Pas’ Islamic ways. It’s the same thing with PKR and DAP.

“Even Tok Guru (Nik Aziz) himself once said that if Umno was to change its nationalistic ways and adopt Islam then he would disband Pas and join Umno,” he wrote.

However, things were rather optimistic on Umno’s side.

A check through comments on the matter in cyberspace indicated that the majority of the Umno members and supporters were supportive of a Pas-Umno cooperation.

“If the two party really does cooperate then this is what majority of the people are waiting for.

“Enough of bickering, Pas and Umno must see eye to eye for the sake of Islam and the Malays,” wrote Aladin Hj Maton one of Umno’s Facebook page.

Oa Ibrahim Abdul Kader implored for all Malays to pray for the success of the Pas-Umno cooperation because he deemed that it was high time for Malays to unite as one.

About the author

Zaidi Azmi

Despite becoming The MOLE's journalist in 2014, he still has a hard time traversing the city. If he is not lost, this northern kampung boy can be found struggling to make some sense out of the Malaysian political sphere.